A dad's perspective...

I am relatively new to autism, coming on 2 years now, but when our son (now 2yrs old) was first diagnosed my wife and I were both feeling sorry that our son may not be able to do the things we would like him to when he is older like: getting married, living on his own, list goes on... My initial experience with autism was one of dismay and uncertainty. The first words I heard were not ones of hope and recovery, but that his life is over and that all our dreams and aspirations for our child are out the door. At that time I was especially sad that it may be a possibility that I will not be able to play catch with him, teach him how to hold the bat right or the right way to block someone, and have those little talks with him. All the things my dad did with me when I was young and the life skills that were being taught. At the time I didn't think to much of those thing my father did, but now that I have my own children I value the time I spend with them and couldn't wait for the day to do those "fatherly" things with them. Almost every single day I have a thought that this autism beast has taken my son away from me and that I will not be able to see him under the lights at a night game or practicing with his teammates getting hyped up for a game.

But I have hope! And really do believe that one day we will be able to look at him see what a wonderful boy he is, what suffering he has overcome and telling us he loves us. When I was growing up I had a lot of trying times some good some bad and grew up rather quickly. I have grown since then and I am not the same person. I look back at my life and see that all those trying times I had were learning experiences and made me into the person I am today. I see my son going through this autism as a trying time he needs to overcome and when he does it will make him that much more of a special person. I will do all that I can to have him achieve this goal and make him into an upstanding individual who has beaten Autism and I feel that the most important lesson I can teach him is one of overcoming adversity.